Tips
for
Surviving as
an Adviser in a
Low-Income Area
By Thomas J. Kaup, MJE
1.
7.
2.
3.
8.
9.
4.
10.
Forget about the minimum
six issues. Celebrate every
issue you print. We just got
our second issue done. Three
family deaths, a robbery at
gunpoint, in addition to all
the usual adolescent angst
got in the way.
Work hard to turn off your
competitive switch.
Title 1 students need food,
clothing, shoes, and electricity.
Why do they need journalism?
Journalism gives poor students
and families a voice. Journalism
can broadcast the struggles they
face each day, just to keep the
electricity on, the water bill and
rent paid. Journalism can tell the
story of 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th
grade students who get on a bus
for two hours to get to their shift
at Taco Bell, work until 1:00 a.m.
go home and clean the apartment,
share a bed or piece of the floor,
then get up after four hours of
sleep and head to school.
Advising journalism can burn a
teacher out more quickly than five
sections of 9th grade English.
Many times the burden of
economic challenges that weighs
down on the shoulders of those
kids in front of you each period is
almost too much to bear.
I haven’t found the answer. A few
tips that I have learned along the
way.
Don’t let the need for money
kill you or your program. Do
what you can with what you
and your students have.
Forget about the rest.
Making the journalism
classroom a safe, warm,
caring environment is worth
the world to your students.
Take time to be a family.
5.
Buy pizza. A lot of it. Bread
sticks too. And that Hershey
Brownie thing. Feed your
kids and celebrate how
wonderful they are and
amazing it is that you even
HAVE a journalism program.
6.
Broad shoulders help. You are
probably the only stable
adult in many students’ lives.
You will need some other
shoulders to lean on too.
Find them.
Set an end time and go home
at that time every day. Leave
the mess on the desk. My
time is 4:00 p.m. Every day.
Enough time to get home,
walk the dogs around the
block and watch the second
episode of Judge Judy.
It is OK to feel guilty once in a
while, but don’t beat yourself
up. Life will do a very good
job of that, so don’t add to it.
An enlarged heart is a must.
You can’t solve even a minute
amount of all the problems,
but sending out and receiving waves of love works.
The system is rigged. From
the top down. Don’t stop
screaming about it, or give
up. But cut yourself some
slack if some days it feels
hopeless. Chip away. Help
your kids find their voice and
teach them to love themselves. That’s the best armor
they will ever have to make it
out there.
11.
Smile.